I’m interested in learning more about authoritarianism, specific (arguably) authoritarian regimes (especially China, Russia, and North Korea), democratic backsliding, the possibility of stable and/or global totalitarianism, and related topics.
As such, I’d be interested in:
- people’s thoughts on which books that are relevant to those topics might be worth reading or might be worth skipping
- links to good summaries/reviews/notes about relevant books
(ETA: I'd also be interested in recommendations of online courses or lecture series on these topics.)
I imagine such a collection could be useful for other people too. I’ll also share the relevant books and links that I know about already. (One type of book I don’t already know of examples of is biographies of relevant political leaders; please feel free to recommend some biographies of that kind!)
The cluster of topics I’m pointing to is intentionally broad. If you’re not sure whether a book/link is relevant enough, please mention it anyway, and just say something about what the book/link seems relevant to.
(See also Books / book reviews on nuclear risk, WMDs, great power war? and Collection of sources related to dystopias and "robust totalitarianism".)
I'm fairly focused on China (studied China in university, speak Mandarin, live in China, read about 50 books on/about China during the past 10 years).
While there are plenty of books that can give you a general feel or a broad understanding of some trends in society (Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China, China in Ten Words, China's Millennials: The Want Generation), and there are a few books regarding specific parts of the government/policy (The Party: The Secret World of China's Communist Rulers, Out of Mao's Shadow: The Struggle for the Soul of a New China, Wealth and Power: China's Long March to the Twenty-first Century, When A Billion Chinese Jump: How China Will Save Mankind Or Destroy It
), I don't know of many books that are focusing specifically on authoritarianism. I suspect that there are quite a few journal articles from political science scholars who focus on Chinese government/governance.
One assumption I have here is that you only/primarily would read in English. If you can read in Chinese, then there is a far more vast swath of literature available from Hong Kong and from Taiwan about China.
Thanks for these recommendations and comments!
In case the following info is useful to other readers:
The Party sounds quite relevant to my interests, so I expect I'll read that in the coming months, and maybe later Out of Mao's Shadow and/or China in Ten Words. I already read Ag... (read more)